Anyone know about Tutorials/Lectures about Server Programming

I'm want to build a server for my iPhone Game to facilitate those multiplayer games and a database of registered players with their stats.

I know how to request JSON-Files from a server and handle them in my App
but I'm currently overwhelmed by the number of new things to learn in Server Programming. I mean I don't want to program a web-service but a server that provides some services for an iPhone App.
There are so many names and possibilities to do this like SOAP,LAMP,Python,Django,Pylons, MySQL etc..

Does anyone know about a good Tutorial/iTunes Lecture on how build servers that accept requests from mobile clients?

I know there are many pitfalls to client-server communication, I just want some Architecture/Framework where I have to do least work on the communication part to implement my Multiplayer-Logic.

I'm want to build a server for my iPhone Game to facilitate those multiplayer games and a database of registered players with their stats.

I know how to request JSON-Files from a server and handle them in my App
but I'm currently overwhelmed by the number of new things to learn in Server Programming. I mean I don't want to program a web-service but a server that provides some services for an iPhone App.
There are so many names and possibilities to do this like SOAP,LAMP,Python,Django,Pylons, MySQL etc..

Does anyone know about a good Tutorial/iTunes Lecture on how build servers that accept requests from mobile clients?

I know there are many pitfalls to client-server communication, I just want some Architecture/Framework where I have to do least work on the communication part to implement my Multiplayer-Logic.

There are a lot of different approaches and I guess it depends on the enviroment you want to support.

If your running on a shared hosting of some kind you probably want to stick with php whereby if you have a lot of users you might want go with ruby or java.

I tend to use java because I have a lot of experience in that.

Also are you going to use apple push notification or not.

The requirements for the iphone are no different than any other client/server environment , straight http posts or gets.

You could always consider giving a third-party system a try. Check out OpenFeint for example. It's a pretty good system they have set up. There's also ngmoco's Plus system but that appears to be closed right now. I have no idea what their API looks like either. OpenFeint's is rather large but it can be worked with.

I got mixed results on tests, a lot of people have downloaded them , even a whole colledge class in the netherlands, some people think the install is easy others had difficulty and I had to provide some help.

Neither are production ready.

I was going to use them for facebook updates but than I found fbconnect.

Thank you for your posts.
I know there are a lot of books out there, that's exactly the problem.
I thought someone here probably knew some Tutotials or Lectures on iTunes, something like "Python and MySQL for Server Programming".

I already knew about OpenFeint and FBConnect but that is not the issue here.
For me there is a lot more then Rankings, my Stat-System is more complicated. And anyway the specific case of a list of Users with Stats is so standard its covered a lot. For the Management of the ongoing games I need more, so I searched for some Lecture on how to set up a Server and Database and use a Programming Language for the Server Logic in a more general setting.

Bersaelor Wrote:Thank you for your posts.
I know there are a lot of books out there, that's exactly the problem.
I thought someone here probably knew some Tutotials or Lectures on iTunes, something like "Python and MySQL for Server Programming".

I already knew about OpenFeint and FBConnect but that is not the issue here.
For me there is a lot more then Rankings, my Stat-System is more complicated. And anyway the specific case of a list of Users with Stats is so standard its covered a lot. For the Management of the ongoing games I need more, so I searched for some Lecture on how to set up a Server and Database and use a Programming Language for the Server Logic in a more general setting.

You have specifc questions but you don't give enough info to answer them.